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April 23, 2014

A Letter Addressed To UN Special Rapporteur Dr. Shaheed

I
am composing this correspondence to you in order to once again draw your
attention to the plight of Mr. Kazemeini Boroujerdi.

Kazemeini
Boroujerdi is a democratic reformer whom has been subjected to soul –
shattering physical and psychological torture at the malevolent hands of the
Iranian regime.

He
was abducted from his residence by the regime’s security forces on the 8th
October 2006.

Members
of Mr. Boroujerdi’s family and close associates were mercilessly beaten during
the course of the raid.

He has since been confined to the notorious Evin prison.

As
you are all too aware, given your work, Evin is a place from which the stench
of sadness, despair and death permeates from.

Mr.
Boroujerdi has been held in prolonged solitary confinement, subjected to
ceaseless beatings ,and various diabolical methods of psychological torture, in
order to coerce him into recanting his liberal, secular, and tolerant
philosophy.

He
has been taunted on innumerable occasions with the threat of his impending
execution.

His
alleged ‘offenses’, as with all of the wretched souls huddled in the dark and
cold corners of Iran, are baseless and without merit.

He
has been deprived of his inherent and inviolable rights.

There
has been no habeas corpus for Mr. Boroujerdi. There has been no due process.
There has been no dignity.

Now,
Kazemeini Boroujerdi rests his frail body on the cold stone floor of Evin.
Cloaked in shadows, the only sound is the periodic screams of his nearby
cellmates that pierce through the night, like a dagger thrust into the heart.

His
crumpled body has suffered a massive heart attack and pulmonary edema has
consequently resulted.

Kazemeini
Boroujerdi has been provided with absolutely no medical care.

Deprived
of even a single physician’s visit.

Kazemeini
Boroujerdi is dying, Dr. Shaheed.

He
must huddle in the suffocating silence and wonder what has brought him to this
time and place.

He
has devoted his life to egalitarianism, rights, liberty and secular
republicanism.

Kazemeini
has unrelentingly defended the rights of the long – persecuted religious Bahá’í
minority.

He
is a tireless advocate for the intrinsic rights of women, gays, political
prisoners, ethnic minorities and religious minorities, as well as children.

Being
a human rights advocate in Iran, means always having a noose draped around
one’s neck, never knowing when it will be tightened.

As
U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic
Republic of Iran, you may very well be the last person who can save Kazemeini
Boroujerdi’s life.

It
is within your power to continue to directly address the plight of Kazemeini
with regime officials, and world leaders.

You
can continue to utilize your respected and honorable position, Dr. Shaheed, to
publicly bring attention to Kazemeini’s case,and place the regime in the
untenable position, of having to explain why they refuse to provide even
minimal medical care, to a respected and prominent human rights advocate and
political prisoner.

You
can now bend the arc of the moral universe towards justice.

Justice,
reason, and righteousness call out for your continued attention and
intervention in this dire matter.

You
have taken up a great moral endeavor. You are a man of kindness, compassion,
and conscience.

The
greatest crime of all is allowing injustice to swirl around you unchecked,
unquestioned, and unabated.

The
light of world is sometimes dim but never extinguished.

Thank
you for your consideration in this urgent matter.

May
I leave you with Kazemeini in his own haunting words:

“When
I see the misery and pain of my compatriots that the regime has annihilated
their world under the name of God and prophet’s tradition, and their lives have
been made bitter with the unreal slogans of the expert and fraudulent persons,
I become more determined to stand up in the hidden, appalling and destroying
prisons of Iran.”

Sincerely,
Ryan P. Christiano

Human
Rights Advocate

“I
am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything; but still I can do
something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the
something that I can do.”

-
Edward Everett Hale.

A
Letter Addressed to UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in
the Islamic Republic of Iran, The Honorable Dr. Shaheed,and a version of which
has been disseminated to the offices of various world leaders ;including
President Obama of The United States of America,The Right Honorable Prime
Minister Cameron of Great Britain, The Honorable President Hollande of France,
The Honorable Chancellor Merkel of Germany, The Honorable Prime Minister Harper
of Canada,UN Secretary General The Honorable Ban Ki-moon, and The High
Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the
European Union The Honorable Baroness Ashton.